Historic Atlantic City hotel sold at auction for $4M

The historic Madison House is known for its ornate chandeliers, marble floors and grand stairways as well as its location on prime real estate in the heart of Atlantic City.Andrew Mills/The Star-Ledger

ATLANTIC CITY — An historic Atlantic City hotel has been sold at auction for $4 million.

The lone bidder for the Madison House was not identified. But a representative for the buyer told The Press of Atlantic City that the new owner intends to resurrect the hotel.

Known for its grand stairway, marble floors and ornate chandeliers, the 14-story Madison House overlooks the beach block of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, giving it a prime location in the heart of the city. It has been largely shuttered since 2006, but remains one of the few survivors of Atlantic City's dramatically changing landscape.

The Madison opened as a luxury hotel in 1929, just months after the stock market crash plunged the nation into the Depression. It then made it through a bout with bankruptcy in the 1960s and avoided the fate of most old hotels when the casinos first arrived in Atlantic City in the 1970s and '80s.

It was its partnership with the Sands Casino Hotel that allowed the Madison to continue operating after the gambling era began. The Sands used the adjacent Madison as a companion hotel for its customers, sinking $7 million into the boutique property in 2004 to transform it into all-suite lodging.

But when the Sands closed in 2006, so did the Madison.

Robert Salvato, a Ventnor real estate broker who conducted the auction, told the newspaper that the Madison still has "good bones." He estimates that the building would need about $1 million in renovations to reopen.